I see a great degree of superficiality in all comments. These seismologists [1] were convicted for breaking the Italian law, period. That the law that allows to jail seismologists for not predicting earthquakes could be improved is a completely different matter. In Italy there are precise rules regarding how to warn people of earthquakes and these scientists have violated them. This is why they're in prison. The sentence even states this explicitly: that the duty of the magister is to apply the current law and not the enter in the merits of how it could be improved for the benefit of the people. Did anybody read the sentence before commenting?
Scientists have also been put to prison in Russia and North Korea, and I haven't seen any similar comments here. I would be very curious to understand why.
Again, let me reiterate that BBC and in general British press are often biased against Italy.
These are the facts: all the scientists have been absolved.
The only person convicted has been the vice-president of the civil protection for declaring in public ( and in TV ) at the beginning of the earthquake that there were "absolutely no risks" associated to the initial earthquake waves. He has been found guilty of providing superficial, generic and inaccurate informations in relation to the role and responsabilities he was covering.
Instead of merely reporting acritically what you read in newspapers from other countries , if you want to be objective try also to read italian newspapers:
Right now you are just showing your bias as many others have done before you. These are just personal attacks against a country and are not based on any fact. Can we start to downvote these kind of posts??
Oh god, spare me this bullshit. I'm not British, or American, I just put up the first source that's considered reasonably reliable (nobody's gonna complain about BBC, right? Or so I thought!) And yet here you are, because god forbid somebody paints Italian justice system in less than positive light. You might have noticed that I even insulted my own country (Russia) in my post, so you can't say I'm biased or anything. And it's not like there's lack of examples I could've chosen. Berlusconi, Amanda Knox, the list goes on and on.
Scientists have also been put to prison in Russia and North Korea, and I haven't seen any similar comments here. I would be very curious to understand why.
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20025626